A beautiful story to take you All Through the Year

When I was little, the summer holidays seemed endless and at the same time, they were over in a flash and it was back to school. I was reminded of this in January on the last day of the school holidays when my five-year-old son said “If the holiday is finished does that mean it’s winter tomorrow?”

All Through the Year is a beautiful story about a little girl, her family and all the things that they do over the course of one year. Each double page is dedicated to one month – watch the Australian seasons change and enjoy the little girl’s seasonal observations, all the things she loves and the family traditions. From school shoes that feel too new in February and Mother’s Day crafts in May to football finals fever in September and the excitement of rehearsing for the Christmas concert in November – children will identify with so many things in this book.

I particularly love the fact that All Through the Year is thoroughly Australian – there are lots of books about the seasons in the Northern Hemisphere but not so for the Southern Hemisphere and more specifically, Australia.

After the success of the delightful story, Little Cat and the Big Red Bus, author Jane Goodwin and illustrator Anna Walker have collaborated again on All Through the Year. There’s no doubt they make an incredible team – Goodwin’s gentle rhyming text is a perfect match for Walker’s delicate and heartfelt illustrations. Keep an eye on the baby and watch him grow over the course of the year.

Katrina Whelen

Katrina studied planning and design, did the hard yards working in a big office building and then traded it all in for a relaxing (!) life at home with four children. She now fills her time with writing, completing a degree in genetics and taxiing her children around Melbourne to their various sporting commitments (not necessarily in that order).